The Role of Migrant Elites in Rural Development

some rural-urban migrations, especially in countries and regions with strong kinship, tribal, community and ethnic relationships, have led to the creation of ethnic businesses within which entrepreneurial and business elites emerge. In some cases, the financial resources of these people return to their native villages and lead to rural development. Therefore, this research seeks to find the strategies that these migrant entrepreneurs use for rural development. This research is a qualitative study based on the principles of grounded theory. The results indicate that emigrant elites have developed strategies such as the formation of developmental and support institutions, the formation of collective business networks, mutual support, and people’s participation. These strategies have led to the investment in birthplace, developmental measures, and interest in improving youth employment and have affected the development of studied villages. The results also showed that the spirit of demanding progress and the need for success, modeling early pioneer immigrants, attachment to birthplace, the pursuit of ethnic businesses, positive view towards the village, the measures of early migrants, etc. have been important in the creation of immigrant elites and entrepreneurs.